The Kingdom’s favorable balance of foreign trade grew from SR 150.65 billion in 2002 to a whopping SR 874.17 billion in 2011, according to a report of the Central Department of Statistics and Information.

Crude oil and its derivatives, plastics, polypropylene, polyethylene, organic chemical products such as ethylene glycol, fertilizers and inorganic products, electric cables and conductors figured high in the list of goods exported from the Kingdom during the period.

The US, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Italy and Bahrain and the UAE were the major countries to which the Kingdom exported its goods, the report said.

The value of Kingdom’s imports in the decade from 2002 to 2011, meanwhile, rose to SR 493.45 billion. China topped the list of Kingdom’s importers, followed by the US, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UAE, France, Italy, India and the UK. These countries accounted for 62 percent of the Saudi imports.

With 13.71 percent of the Saudi exports worth SR 187.52 billion, the US topped the list of Saudi exports in 2011.

Crude and its derivatives topped the list of exported items followed by ethylene glycol, urea, rust-resistant pipes and perfumes.

US imports to the Kingdom stood at SR 61.94 billion accounting for 12.55 of the Kingdom’s imports taking second position in the list of importers. Cars and spare parts, and aircraft engines and spare parts as well as used cars were among the major imported items.

With SR 180.83 billion worth of goods, Japan was second among countries, which imported Saudi goods accounting for 13.22 percent of total Saudi exports in 2011.

The Kingdom imported from that country SR 31.07 worth goods accounting for 6.3 percent of imports.

Major items of exports were crude and its derivatives, methanol, polyethylene of low density, ethylene glycol and urea.The Kingdom’s imports from that country, which ranked fourth among its importers, included cars and spare-parts, tires and light truck structures.

The exports to the GCC countries stood at SR 92.56 billion and imports from them at SR 32.13 billion in the year. With SR 37.88 billion worth exports to the UAE accounting for 2.77 percent of the Kingdom’s exports, the GCC member occupied ninth position among the Kingdom’s exporting countries in 2011.

The major export items to the UAE included crude oil and its derivatives, low density poly ethylene, iron and steel, jewelry and polypropylene.

Its imports to the Kingdom stood at SR 20.43 billion accounting for 4.14 percent of the total imports and had the sixth position among the Kingdom’s importers.

The imported items from the UAE included gold, platforms for offshore excavations, iron and steel rods and coils, copper rods and palm oil.

The exports to other Arab countries stood at SR 63.88 billion and imports from them at SR 16.45 billion.